Playstation 3 delayed in Europe until March 2007
Quote:Press Releases
06/09/2006 06:40
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Announces New March 2007 date for European Launch of PLAYSTATION 3
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Announces New March 2007 date for European Launch of PLAYSTATION 3
No change in launch date for Japan and North America
London, Wednesday 6 September 2006 – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced that it would revise the launch date of its PLAYSTATION® 3 computer entertainment system in the PAL territories of Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and Australasia from 17th November 2006, as previously announced to March 2007.
Launch dates for Japan and North America will remain the same, which are November 11th and November 17th respectively.
The revision of the launch date in the SCEE territories is caused by the delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PLAYSTATION 3.
The previously announced PLAYSTATION 3 shipment forecast of 6 million units globally within the fiscal year ending 2007 is not changed.
http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Content/...wsAreaID=2
Also, for launch, 400,000 units to the U.S. and 100,000 to Japan.
No 1080p Games Anytime Soon
Quote:To add to the pile today, Kikizo asked a few questions of SCEE's Jonathan Fargher, where he talks about the lack of HDMI cables and their impact on 1080p content, and what content would be available. If you manage to get your hands on a PS3, you'll still be able to play 1080p movies, but probably not games, at least anytime soon.
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200609/018.asp
No HDMI cables included. No 1080p games. Looks like hi-def gaming didn't have to wait for Sony afterall.
May take 5 Years for Sony to Recover from Losses
Quote:The operating loss at Sony's game division widened more than fourfold to 26.8 billion yen in the quarter ended June 30, the company said in July. Sales fell 29 percent as the PlayStation 2 wasn't able to hold its own against the Xbox 360.
Sony predicts costs of developing the PlayStation 3 will widen losses at the games division this quarter and may take five years to recoup.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2...MHrm8415zU
Add this to their piling debt and financial woes.
Sony am doomed.
Good fucking God. As much shit as Nintendo has gone through this past generation, lack of third party titles just plain seems like nit-picking compared to Sony's internal ass rape.
I am very curious as to what Sony has planned when they launch PS3. MGS4 will be the talk of the town but what do they have at launch to get things flowing? I mean this is just sad.
Business wise, this leaves a huge window open for MS and Nintendo. MS needs to release a bundle or a price drop or a stream of 3 to 4 AAA games and seriously grab the european market before sony has a chance. All Nintendo has to do is release their system. Europe isn't as far along with HD as we are, so no one really cares about the HD aspect anyway, and all the buzz around Wii and Zelda will be enough to grab europe's market away from any hope of Sony finding a place to niche out.
Couple all this with companies offering more support towards HD-DVD and HD-DVD players with a price between 3 and 5 hundred (as compared to a 600 PS3 or 1000 BRP) AND HD-DVD disks being cheaper to manufacture, you have a serious reason to make alot of popcorn and get comfy for a falling out that hasn't happened in this industry since Sega's death in the hardware world.
Sony's stock on Nasdaq can be found under the title - "KABOOM"
If the PS3 doesn't meet their expectations and the Blu-ray format fails to catch on, then Sony could be in some serious trouble.
I am feeling more and more like Sony has already lost this generation. I don't think Nintendo will have enough to take over first, but I think Nintendo and MS are going to be running the show if Sony continues to fall flat on their face like this. I think they tried too hard to push the Blu-Ray standard with the PS3 before it was ready for the mainstream and it is continuing to bite them in the ass.
I'd say that Kutaragi was right that for the cost and contents of the PS3 box, $599 was probably too low a price... :)
As I said in the thread I made a little while ago, Sony should have learned from Microsoft's little pricing scheme wtih the X360. People don't add up all those separate costs like they do the cost of one expensive box. :)
Forget about HDMI cables, there will be no HD cables in the box. Both sold seperately.
Quote:PS3: HD cables not included
Gamers looking to get the best picture out of Sony's premium PlayStation 3 package will need to shell out extra for proper hookups.
The price of Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3 has been the subject of much debate. The system will come in $499 and $599 packages, the latter including a larger hard drive, built-in wireless network capabilities, and an HDMI port. However, according to Sony's own official PS3 Web site, the system won't come with the cables necessary to carry an HDMI signal, or any high-definition signal, for that matter.
According to the double-asterisked bit of small print on the page, "Video output in HD requires cables and an HD-compatible display, both sold separately. Copy-protected Blu-ray video discs can only output at 1080p using an HDMI cable connected to a device that is compatible with the HDCP standard. HDMI cable not included. Additional equipment may be required to use the HDMI connector."
[url="http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6157113.html?sid=6157113&tag=nl.e513</p><p style="]http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6157113.html?sid=6157113&tag=nl.e513
[/url]
like, omg. It's like they want to fail.
*So you know, Core 360 = standard AV cables included, Premium 360 = HD Cables included (NOT HDMI)
lazyfatbum Wrote:Good fucking God. As much shit as Nintendo has gone through this past generation, lack of third party titles just plain seems like nit-picking compared to Sony's internal ass rape.
I am very curious as to what Sony has planned when they launch PS3. MGS4 will be the talk of the town but what do they have at launch to get things flowing? I mean this is just sad.
Business wise, this leaves a huge window open for MS and Nintendo. MS needs to release a bundle or a price drop or a stream of 3 to 4 AAA games and seriously grab the european market before sony has a chance. All Nintendo has to do is release their system. Europe isn't as far along with HD as we are, so no one really cares about the HD aspect anyway, and all the buzz around Wii and Zelda will be enough to grab europe's market away from any hope of Sony finding a place to niche out.
Couple all this with companies offering more support towards HD-DVD and HD-DVD players with a price between 3 and 5 hundred (as compared to a 600 PS3 or 1000 BRP) AND HD-DVD disks being cheaper to manufacture, you have a serious reason to make alot of popcorn and get comfy for a falling out that hasn't happened in this industry since Sega's death in the hardware world.
Sony's stock on Nasdaq can be found under the title - "KABOOM"
lol
I have a feeling that, if Nintendo can get all those launch titles out, they'll make some major inroads in Europe. If I'm not mistaken, the DS is enjoying quite a bit of success there now.
Microsoft has a lot of work to do if they're going to get in to the Euro's wallets. They are staunchly dedicated to Sony and that's only going to change if MS gets some major games out there. Saint's Row is currently the number one game in EU...that's a good start. Gears of War and Forza 2 (if they can get it out before Xmas) will do some good as well. Nevermind the 360 is the only place for next-gen soccer for the next 6-9 months or so. I think the new Splintercell, also a big hit in Europe, is due out for the 360 this fall.
I really wonder how the tiny availability of PS3 this Xmas is going to affect blu-ray? As you said, HD-DVD will be cheaper and have 2-3 times as many titles out by this holiday season. I wonder if Toshiba, or would it be Microsoft, will push the HD-DVD hard? That's assuming they can get plenty of units out there, of course. Toshiba's 150 million dollar blitz campaign, "The look and sound of perfect," is supposed to launch sometime this Fall.
Okay here's the thing about the 360. As good as it is doing here, it is floundering in Japan. It seems like Wii may just get the clean sweep in the home land and, using the sheer success of Japan and it's bleedover into translated 3rd party gems here, it could basically be Super Nintendo all over again (and the 360 is the Genesis, and the PS3 is the CD-i).
What could possibly be this tough about 1080P anyway? It's just a boost in frames per second! They've been doing this with ultra high resolutions on PC moniters for years, at HIGHER refresh rates AND frames per second! Taking that 1080I and making it P like the other resolutions shouldn't be that big an issue. It should have been in place from the start.
Quote:Okay here's the thing about the 360. As good as it is doing here, it is floundering in Japan. It seems like Wii may just get the clean sweep in the home land and, using the sheer success of Japan and it's bleedover into translated 3rd party gems here, it could basically be Super Nintendo all over again (and the 360 is the Genesis, and the PS3 is the CD-i).
360 is also underwhelming in Europe too; not doing horribly, but not doing so well that it can be convincingly said that it's going to win... honestly, this really to me just means that the PS2 will continue to hold the market, in Europe at least. Microsoft is trying, but for some reason only America seems to be listening to them... Japan... I'm not sure. Handhelds rule now, but the Wii and PS3 might change that... maybe not, though. Their handheld market is very strong. North America? Hard to say. The 360 is, and will continue to, do best in the US by far. Other than that I really have no idea... right now we're in the pre-release period for the Wii and PS3 and as we have repeatedly learned assumptions of what will happen often end up wrong -- unless people have forgotten that before the GC came out Nintendo thought that it'd do better than N64 and bring back Nintendo as one of the top console manufacturers...
And instead it sold 4 million units in Japan, vs. 5 million for the N64, and 12 million in the US -- vs. 20 million for the N64 -- a failure to improve in Japan, but not as crushing as the US failure that lost it almost half of its marketshare... anyway, the point is, we don't know what is going to happen. I do think that it's unlikely that the PS3 will repeat the PS2's domination, though... there are just too many negative signs. Or at least, if it does happen, it'll take years to develop -- like the SNES which didn't pass the Genesis for years after it came out (in the US). Wii is of course the biggest wildcard though... will they manage to make it a casual-friendly box like the DS is and catch the casual market that currently mostly plays PC and handheld (cellphone/PDA anywhere as well as DS in Japan) games? It's possible, but the hurdle is higher for a TV-based console than one that is portable or games that run on a PC, something that everyone has anyway for work or internet access... they are trying with this new controller, and maybe that'll work, but I just have trouble saying "this will make it succeed like the DS" when some of the most important reasons for the DS's mass-market success are things that are exclusive to the handheld market -- the issue of battery life, the fact that having the newest graphics technology is less important on handhelds, that a lot of the games that have brought it success are designed for play while travelling to work or in your spare time, something that Wii games cannot be designed to do... no, if they want this to succeed they can't just copy their DS policy, they need a new one... and while they seem to have kind of tried to do that so far, it's anyone's guess as to whether it will work. It could be that it doesn't and that it again appeals mainly to gamers (even though it is pretty much certain that to at least some degree nongamers will be drawn in, if they can be gotten to actually try the thing... getting someone who thinks "I don't like games" to actually TRY the game will be the hardest step, I think, among the adult market. Can Nintendo break that barrier in the West?
... oh right, PS3. Ah, they aren't changing strategy, the question is mostly just about perceptions of the high price and the issues of supply and finance... five years to recoup the losses? That could be a serious problem... and supply? 500,000 for launch? Ah, that's not much room for error for if there are any manufacturing problems, particularly given how they haven't even started making the things yet... yeah, Sony really has done a good job of backing themselves up against a wall here. The question is if MS and Nintendo's efforts to capitalize on that will work -- and that's just not a sure thing.
Taking past trends into account is valid, but ignoring information we currently have is also faulty. That's why it seems the Wii could take a lead this time around.
*checks watch* Yeah, it was getting to be about the time for Sony to start reneging some of the promises made about the PS3's capabilities.
Quote:Taking past trends into account is valid, but ignoring information we currently have is also faulty. That's why it seems the Wii could take a lead this time around.
Japan? Quite possibly yes. US? Maybe, but doubtful (for Nintendo to be #1). Europe? Very remote chances. Nintendo has, as far as I know, never been the European market leader, not even in the NES/SNES generations...
In the US, eh, we can't predict whether 360 or Wii will come out on top yet. Not enough data.
In Europe? Who cares what happened before? Everything's different now. The 360 isn't doing so well there, and the PS3 won't be released until next year, as well as all it's other issues. The only issue is if they actually want anything to do with Nintendo's system. Germany at least seems into it. I'd say Nintendo has good odds there.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:Okay here's the thing about the 360. As good as it is doing here, it is floundering in Japan. It seems like Wii may just get the clean sweep in the home land and, using the sheer success of Japan and it's bleedover into translated 3rd party gems here, it could basically be Super Nintendo all over again (and the 360 is the Genesis, and the PS3 is the CD-i).
Just thinking of Nintendo being on top again gets me all warm and fuzzy inside. Seriously, I'd love to see that.
A Black Falcon Wrote:360 is also underwhelming in Europe too; not doing horribly, but not doing so well that it can be convincingly said that it's going to win... honestly, this really to me just means that the PS2 will continue to hold the market, in Europe at least. Microsoft is trying, but for some reason only America seems to be listening to them... Japan... I'm not sure. Handhelds rule now, but the Wii and PS3 might change that... maybe not, though. Their handheld market is very strong. North America? Hard to say. The 360 is, and will continue to, do best in the US by far. Other than that I really have no idea... right now we're in the pre-release period for the Wii and PS3 and as we have repeatedly learned assumptions of what will happen often end up wrong -- unless people have forgotten that before the GC came out Nintendo thought that it'd do better than N64 and bring back Nintendo as one of the top console manufacturers...
The 360 has sold just over one million units in Europe since its November launch 11 months ago. To compare, Playstation 2 launched in Europe in November of 2000, and by December 2001, 13 months later, had sold 1.68 million.
Link
Floundering? Hardly. If anything, it's right on track if PS2's success is anything to go by.
I must admit there's a certain nostalgic charm to it myself, but I'd be fine if Nintendo just kept doing what they are doing now, which is plenty good enough to stay afloat which is all they need to keep doing the only thing I care about, making games I enjoy playing. That's about my attitude for all of it. I wouldn't want a "clean sweep" situation though. Being challenged is what keeps these companies doing what they do. There are downsides of course, like stupid gimics (those e-cards and game link-up used to unlock features in the game that are already in the game and should by all rights be accessible without buying the other game).
COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TOPIC, there sure are a LOT of very high quality games these days. Seriously, I can't keep up. I don't have the TIME to play it all, much less the cash, before even more come out. It's this swarm of quality. I'm used to swarms of quantity, but there were rare gems to be plucked out of that and the gaming collection may have been slow to grow due to a need for discerning the good from the massive bad. Now though... It's like you have to decide between gold or diamond. There's still way more garbage, but there's a LOT of must haves out now and that will come out.
Seriously, I think I'll need to dialate time in order to have any hope of catching up with it all. Gaming is a very big market these days, and I fear I may get to the point where I'll just have to say alright, even if it's a very good "must have" game, I don't have to have it. I'll end up having to just say "only when I feel like playing a game, I'll just pick up the newest one I'm interested in at the time". I'll end up treating games like I treat all other forms of entertainment, as a casual thing. It's getting closer...
Japanese not buying up 360 makes sense, it's an American console. To them, it's like the Jaguar and no one wants to take the system home. But Europe I dont get, it being an American product should have no weight in their choice of console. Maybe they out-right dislike MS as a company.
I've heard lots of positive reviews about Dead Rising. There's the super tiny text issue on non-HD televisions... since most europeans dont have HDTVs they feel like they're getting screwed. With Gamecube Nintendo opted for a 60Hz mode in the PAL GC, giving europeans the ability to have slightly lower horizontal resolution while getting a better fluidity in the framerate (for standard TVs). Is the 360 experiencing something similar? I know King Kong for 360 looked like shit on standard res... maybe the europeans are just burned by the system.
I also cant think of any soccer games on 360, I bet that's a major reason 360 isn't getting more love there. All the european sites went ape shit when Nintendo announced Mario Strikers for Wii, maybe MS just needs to get a good soccer game going.
lazyfatbum Wrote:Japanese not buying up 360 makes sense, it's an American console. To them, it's like the Jaguar and no one wants to take the system home. But Europe I dont get, it being an American product should have no weight in their choice of console. Maybe they out-right dislike MS as a company.
I've heard lots of positive reviews about Dead Rising. There's the super tiny text issue on non-HD televisions... since most europeans dont have HDTVs they feel like they're getting screwed. With Gamecube Nintendo opted for a 60Hz mode in the PAL GC, giving europeans the ability to have slightly lower horizontal resolution while getting a better fluidity in the framerate (for standard TVs). Is the 360 experiencing something similar? I know King Kong for 360 looked like shit on standard res... maybe the europeans are just burned by the system.
I also cant think of any soccer games on 360, I bet that's a major reason 360 isn't getting more love there. All the european sites went ape shit when Nintendo announced Mario Strikers for Wii, maybe MS just needs to get a good soccer game going.
Saint's Row is the number one video game in the UK right now. Xbox 360 is getting Pro Evolution Soccer '07 and FIFA '07 before any other next-gen console. That should help.
I think they were just slow on the uptake given there wasn't that much of interest. I think that's going to to change dramatically in the coming months.
The delay is definitely going to help the Xbox360 in Europe. I imagine at least a few people will pick one up this Christmas instead of the PS3.
Just imagine Christmas rolling around, people are going to be buying one of two things: Wii or 360. Here, I have a feeling that people will be 'done' with 360 in that sales wont soar by much, it was last years must have, it wont repeat. I wish MS would release the HD-DVD add-on in time for Christmas, sell it for 50/100 bucks and whoosh, HD movies. That would put MS back on the offensive this Christmas. I predict that Sony will hit a wall, people see it as very strange and there will be lots of misinformation about the system. Especially with the tiny bit of systems we're getting; I cant see how Sony is going to come out on top this Christmas at all.
Wii, between the rumored 170 and 250 range with almost 30 launch titles that include Zelda, I mean... it's just going to be a massively insane Christmas
Which reminds me, as soon as September 14th gets here I need to prepurchase Wii and Zelda.
lazyfatbum Wrote:I have a feeling that people will be 'done' with 360 in that sales wont soar by much, it was last years must have, it wont repeat.
It very well could given a must-have game or two. If you care to remember back to 2001, when the GC and Xbox launched, the PS2 enjoyed an amazing sales period and just left the two newbies in the dust.
Quote:I wish MS would release the HD-DVD add-on in time for Christmas, sell it for 50/100 bucks and whoosh, HD movies. That would put MS back on the offensive this Christmas. I predict that Sony will hit a wall, people see it as very strange and there will be lots of misinformation about the system. Especially with the tiny bit of systems we're getting; I cant see how Sony is going to come out on top this Christmas at all.
It will be out in time for Christmas. It won't be that cheap though. All signs point to about $200-250, and a pack-in movie or two.
I don't see Sony coming out on top for a while. They
might be able to catch up with 360/Wii by 2008...maybe.
Quote:Wii, between the rumored 170 and 250 range with almost 30 launch titles that include Zelda, I mean... it's just going to be a massively insane Christmas
Which reminds me, as soon as September 14th gets here I need to prepurchase Wii and Zelda.
If Nintendo can meet the demand, which I assume is going to be massive, then they'll do very well in all regions. I'm just disappointed Mario, Sonic, and Smash Bros. won't be at launch.
Sonic I dunno, but Nintendo got their chops busted for not launching GC with a Mario game. The only thing that makes me think it wont happen is of course Zelda. Nintendo doesn't want to compete with itself. :D
It's possible that Super Paper Mario will become a Wii launch title. Rumors suggest that it is no longer being released for the GC. And really, that course of action makes the most sense.
Why would releasing both be competing with itself? If they decide to only get one, the other can be obtained later after all. Why would releasing it earlier prevent that?
DJ/ You and I would buy both and be happies. Though (on the average) throwing out 100 bucks at once seems iffy to me. Most people buy video games like they buy DVD's which translates to once in a while and for a specific movie they know they want. But the real deal is that you're looking at personal investment, time and money.
Have you ever gotten two games at once that are are must haves? I remember I got Metroid Prime 1 and Pikmin on the same day. The first five minutes of Pikmin and I was like 'Okay, this is like an RTS, hmm, yeah...... metroid now!" and I ended up ignoring Pikmin until I got stuck in Metroid. Then I caught on to Pikmin's gameplay and got in to it, I started to ignore Metroid. I kept going back and forth until I realized that going back and forth doesn't make me happy. I want to spend time on one game at a time and breathe it all in. So I devouted my time to Metroid, finished it (beat it on normal and with 91%), and then went to Pikmin.
From that time on, i've always made sure that if I get two games on the same time frame, the second game will be a pick up and play type and definitely not a big flagship game.
If you got two DVDs on the same day, you wouldn't watch one movie half way through and then go watch the other right? Well that's how I feel about games. After I talked to people I found they have the same mentality. The only time the idea of 'I want6 a different game' comes in to play is when they either get stuck or get bored of the game. That investment is what Nintendo looks at when it's planning its release schedule.
So ultimately, with many people needing to invest in one game at a time, by releasing two or more flagship titles the same day there is a good chance that one will get passed up. If I was looking at Zelda TP and MG in the store, I would pick Zelda simply becase i've been waiting for it longer. Then after a few weeks, maybe a month, i'll pick up Mario Galaxy. That certainly doesn't settle well with a company who is interested in selling their games during a launch period. It would be better to release Zelda at launch, then 3 or 4 weeks later release Mario Galaxy - Now you're getting million plus sales on each title release instead of making people choose which to invest in first had they been released on the first day.
So in the end, Nintendo would be competing with itself because both games cant be number 1 on the charts, both games cant have the highest sales, etc. Then you have the pie graph side of things. Nintendo is launching with almost 30 titles, the majority of them being third party across every genre. If Nintendo wants to make good with the third parties they have to plan their release schedule carefully. Out of all the third party games at launch, none of them are like Zelda, you have first person shooters (RS, CoD3, Farcry), platformers (Rayman, Monkeyball, the nine million UBI and EA platformers), racing (THDJ, SSXW, NSC, Monster 4X4 w/wheel, GTP w/wheel), adventure (SplintercellDA, Avatar LA okay i'm going to stop here. Basically, a lot of titles and none of them are action/adventure RPGs. But in each individual case of the third party titles, even with UBI who are releasing 8 (!!) at launch, none of them are like the other. They each offer uniqueness, so the spongebob platformer plays nothing like Rayman, etc.
For a company it works out better in the end to diversify your lineup and pace out your flagship titles. While releasing Mario and Zelda on the same day might be a bad choice, releasing Zelda alone from Nintendo's flagship along with some smaller quirky games among the sea of third party choices works out best for Nintendo and its third parties who will each be able to taome a piece of the pie instead of fighting for it.
One of the biggest gripes from third parties is that releasing a game on N64 or GC means you're competing with Nintendo's first and second party games, which everyone knows there is no competing with them. So with Wii I think we'll see a slower pace with Nintendo first and second party titles to allow third parties to breathe.
So, many paragraphs but it's just common sense for a company not to compete with its own products. NCL doesn't actually have alot on their plate right now with so many things out-sourced. They have Zelda, Mario... and that's it. So pacing is important.
One question. Why would people waiting to buy it until a few months later hurt their sales? If everyone decided to wait a while, or even if it was spread out over time, don't they still make the same amount of money in the end?
Quote:The 360 has sold just over one million units in Europe since its November launch 11 months ago. To compare, Playstation 2 launched in Europe in November of 2000, and by December 2001, 13 months later, had sold 1.68 million.
Link
Floundering? Hardly. If anything, it's right on track if PS2's success is anything to go by.
That's not 'right on track', that's 'well behind'...
Quote:Japanese not buying up 360 makes sense, it's an American console. To them, it's like the Jaguar and no one wants to take the system home. But Europe I dont get, it being an American product should have no weight in their choice of console. Maybe they out-right dislike MS as a company.
They buy Windows PCs though, you know...
Quote:If Nintendo can meet the demand, which I assume is going to be massive, then they'll do very well in all regions. I'm just disappointed Mario, Sonic, and Smash Bros. won't be at launch.
We're getting Launch Zelda and people care about the rest of the lineup? :D
Quote:One question. Why would people waiting to buy it until a few months later hurt their sales? If everyone decided to wait a while, or even if it was spread out over time, don't they still make the same amount of money in the end?
Yes, but a lot of attention is paid to first-week sales, and sales usually drop off significantly after that first week or so...
Quote:That's not 'right on track', that's 'well behind'...
Xbox360: November 2005 - August 2006 = 1.0 million
PS2: November 2000 - December 2001 = 1.68 million
Xbox 360 = 9-10 months
PS2 = 13-14 months
Quote:The 360 has sold just over one million units in Europe since its November launch 11 months ago. To compare, Playstation 2 launched in Europe in November of 2000, and by December 2001, 13 months later, had sold 1.68 million.
A two month difference doesn't account for a nearly 700,000 units difference in sales...
A Black Falcon Wrote:A two month difference doesn't account for a nearly 700,000 units difference in sales...
It hit over a million about a month ago. Since then, Dead Rising and Saint's Row have released and met critical acclaim. Saint's Row is the number one game in the UK...that's gotta mean some system sales, no? So, the 360 has about 4 months to account for about half a million sales. That's not entirely unfeasable given the fact that the PS2 enjoyed a November 2001 in Europe of about 500,000 units sold.
We'll see...
The months leading up to the end of the year are always the biggest for console sales. And it's closer to four months difference.
Then why are the monthly numbers not seen as being all that good? I'd need to see the numbers myself, but the PS2 had no real competition at the time (the DC was dead the day the PS2 came out...) while the 360 is competing against, well, the PS2, which is still selling quite well... it's far too early to say that the 360 is going to be a great success in Europe and I don't think it'll get anywhere near the PS2's total sales numbers, either in the US or Europe. Xbox numbers sure, but PS2? That'd imply either a huge growth in the industry or Microsoft taking over from Sony on the top, and I don't know how likely that really is...
A Black Falcon Wrote:Then why are the monthly numbers not seen as being all that good? I'd need to see the numbers myself, but the PS2 had no real competition at the time (the DC was dead the day the PS2 came out...) while the 360 is competing against, well, the PS2, which is still selling quite well... it's far too early to say that the 360 is going to be a great success in Europe and I don't think it'll get anywhere near the PS2's total sales numbers, either in the US or Europe. Xbox numbers sure, but PS2? That'd imply either a huge growth in the industry or Microsoft taking over from Sony on the top, and I don't know how likely that really is...
Ermmm...well, I think the numbers speak for themselves. The FACT that the 360 sales are relative to the PS2's early days bode pretty well for Microsoft if you ask me.
The N64 was on its last legs and the DC was dead. Sony was only competiting withitself. Fast forward to today and the XBox is dead, the GC is on its last legs, and the PS2 has been losing momentum since last year.
Microsoft doesn't have to take Sony from the top, they only have to take more market share away from Sony. That's going to
continue happening due to the NON-gap in graphic capability but the huge price difference. Sony got arrogant, they will be fucked.
It's pretty funny that you said right on track which is true but it's still hurting the company. PS2 went from sorta crap to omg overnight and sales said down-c, left-c, up-c twice. But you had two factors: Specific titles released at that time that calmed Japan's shyness from the system and that the PS2 had plenty of games announced that were from noted resources like Square. Think about it, this is the same market that PSX devoured and controlled and the same manufacturer releases an update to the hardware and they're not welcomed imeadiately. The XCrotch *CLEVER* never moved off the shelves, I think on some islands in Japan they use them to anchor ships or balance catapults, then MS says okay forget it, here's the update and it's recieving the same treatment.
imo MS needs to grab a company and put them to work on RPGs. Classic, menu based, spiky hair RPGs and games based on TV and movies in Japan, if you ask anyone in Japan why they love PS2 it's one of those reasons.
Quote:Microsoft doesn't have to take Sony from the top, they only have to take more market share away from Sony. That's going to continue happening due to the NON-gap in graphic capability but the huge price difference. Sony got arrogant, they will be fucked.
I think I've sufficiently proven that Microsoft doesn't actually have a price advantage, it actually has a higher one, it's just spread out over a longer period of time so people don't notice... anyway, both systems are very expensive, and even more so in Europe than they are here.
People probably will be dissapointed when the PS3 doesn't have like 10x better graphics than X360 like some hype claims, though... :)
Quote:imo MS needs to grab a company and put them to work on RPGs. Classic, menu based, spiky hair RPGs and games based on TV and movies in Japan, if you ask anyone in Japan why they love PS2 it's one of those reasons.
They do have Mistwalker doing Trusty Bell, Blue Dragon, and one other game...
A Black Falcon Wrote:I think I've sufficiently proven that Microsoft doesn't actually have a price advantage, it actually has a higher one, it's just spread out over a longer period of time so people don't notice...
You don't NEED anything other than what the core gives you in order to play games. Everything else is extra. Sony, on the other hand, is forcing a bunch of crap on you.
Quote:You don't NEED anything other than what the core gives you in order to play games. Everything else is extra. Sony, on the other hand, is forcing a bunch of crap on you.
Yes, you do. You need somewhere to save games -- the 360 Core, unlike the Wii or either PS3, has no internal save system. You need either a $40 memory card or a 4100 hard drive in order to save. That makes it $340 to $400 for the core. The real big charges, for HD-DVD, online play, or single-console multiplayer are admittedly optional, but seriously... isn't it reasonable to expect that most people are going to want at least SOME of the other options, at some point over the life of the console? I'd sure say so! And that's where MS gets you.